Miller, when we presented the monkeys to him, told us that the females both of these monkeys and of the howlers themselves took care of the young, the males not assisting them, and moreover that when the young one was a male he had always found the mother keeping by herself, away from the old males.  On the other hand, among the marmosets he found the fathers taking as much care of the young as the mothers; if the mother had twins, the father would usually carry one, and sometimes both, around with him.

After we had been out four hours our camaradas got lost; three several times they travelled round in a complete circle; and we had to set them right with the compass.  About noon the rain, which had been falling almost without interruption for forty-eight hours, let up, and in an hour or two the sun came out.  We went back to the river, and found our rowboat.  In it the hounds—­a motley and rather worthless lot—­and the rest of the party were ferried across to the opposite bank, while Colonel Rondon and I stayed in the boat, on the chance that a tapir might be roused and take to the river.  However, no tapir was found; Kermit killed a collared peccary, and I shot a capybara representing a color-phase the naturalists wished.

Next morning, January 1, 1914, we were up at five and had a good New Year’s Day breakfast of hardtack, ham, sardines, and coffee before setting out on an all day’s hunt on foot.  I much feared that the pack was almost or quite worthless for jaguars, but there were two or three of the great spotted cats in the neighborhood and it seemed worth while to make a try for them anyhow.  After an hour or two we found the fresh tracks of two, and after them we went.  Our party consisted of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Rogaciano—­an excellent man, himself a native of Matto Grosso, of old Matto Grosso stock—­two others of the party from the Sao Joao ranch, Kermit, and myself, together with four dark-skinned camaradas, cowhands from the same ranch.  We soon found that the dogs would not by themselves follow the jaguar trail; nor would the camaradas, although they carried spears.  Kermit was the one of our party who possessed the requisite speed, endurance, and eyesight, and accordingly he led.  Two of the dogs would follow the track half a dozen yards ahead of him, but no farther; and two of the camaradas could just about keep up with him.  For an hour we went through thick jungle, where the machetes were constantly at work.  Then the trail struck off straight across the marshes, for jaguars swim and wade as freely as marsh-deer.  It was a hard walk.  The sun was out.  We were drenched with sweat.  We were torn by the spines of the innumerable clusters of small palms with thorns like needles.  We were bitten by the hosts of fire-ants, and by the mosquitoes, which we scarcely noticed where the fire-ants were found, exactly as all dread of the latter vanished when we were menaced by the big red wasps, of which a dozen stings will disable a man, and if he is weak